Year A (96)

The readings this morning are about recognising who Christ is, who we are not, and learning to remain with him now that he has come close.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Christmas keeps asking us a simple but demanding question. Not “what happened?”, but …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as a new calendar year begins, the Church places before us a woman and a child and asks us to begin here.

We come into this year carrying many things. Relief that a difficult year has ended. Concern about what has not changed. Questions …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the last day of the year. Before we make plans for tomorrow, the Church asks us to listen again to the beginning of John’s Gospel, so that we can understand where our lives come from and where they are meant to go.

Many of us come …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, the days after Christmas feel different. Things slow down. The celebrations ease. The world treats Christmas as a single day and quickly moves on, but the Church does not. She insists that Christmas is a season, not a …

This morning’s readings speak of how God teaches us, slowly and patiently, to recognise the light by learning how to love.

Dear brothers in Christ, these days within the Octave of Christmas have the feel of a long, quiet gaze. The feast itself has passed, the noise has …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is good to be with you this morning. Today’s feast touches something very close to the heart of African life. God chooses to come to us through family — not only the small household, but the wider family that carries us, names us, and …

This homily is about how love shapes the way we see, and how learning to see rightly changes how we live.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, these days of Christmas move quickly. One feast follows another, and before we have settled into the joy of the …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the child born in the light of Christmas is followed at once by a man who dies in that same light, refusing to let it be extinguished.

We would happily linger at the manger. We would keep the night soft, the light gentle, the world hushed …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Christmas Day asks us to look again at the world we thought we knew, and to notice that God has already stepped into it. Not from above, not from far away, but from within.

Our first reading from the prophet Isaiah gives us an image full …

This morning tells us that God enters the world quietly, chooses the poor, and asks us to return to our lives changed.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Christmas at dawn meets us before the day has properly begun. The world is still tired. Some worries have not yet …

The night has a way of telling the truth. When the streets grow quiet, the noise inside us often grows louder. Worries we have kept busy during the day begin to speak. Regrets knock. Hopes feel thin. And so we gather here, in the deep hush of Christmas night, in our own …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, tonight we stand before a mystery: God keeps his promises by coming among us as a silent child, asking not to be explained but to be welcomed.

As Advent reaches its final watch tonight, Christmas Eve does not begin with noise or drama. It …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scriptures tell us that God does not move into the houses we build for him; God builds a home in us, and then walks with us into the night, lighting the road as we go. This is the promise that runs through the whole of Advent.

Our …

Brothers, we are close to Christmas now. The Church does not push us forward. She asks us to slow down and to notice what God is already doing.

The prophet Malachi speaks about a messenger sent ahead of the Lord. The images are ordinary ones. A fire that cleans metal. A soap …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as Advent comes close to its end, the Church asks us to listen to three songs. They come from Hannah, from Israel, and from Mary. They rise from lives that knew waiting, worry, and weakness. They remind us that when God draws near, even …

Today the Church brings us to a moment of decision. Christmas is close, but before the story is finished, we are asked a question: will we trust God when the way forward is unclear?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, on this Fourth Sunday of Advent the Church …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, in these final days before Christmas the Church asks us to slow down and pay attention, because the most important things in our faith happen without noise, without spectacle, and often without recognition.

Our first reading …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, as Advent draws to its close, the Church asks us to slow down. These last days before Christmas are not loud. They are careful. They invite us to notice what is usually missed. God is at work, but not in ways that shout.

The …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these last days of Advent feel like that moment just before morning, when the world is still dark but something inside us knows that light is near. We are close to Christmas now, close to a promise about to take flesh.

Our first reading …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, we are now in the final days before Christmas, and the Church deliberately slows our pace. Advent narrows our focus. The noise fades, and what remains is memory: a long remembering of what God has promised and how patiently …

Today we are challenged with a simple but uncomfortable question: will we only speak faith, or will we actually go and live it?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent is a season of waiting, but it is not a season of delay. It is meant to move us. It asks …

Today’s message is essentially about how God’s authority does not force us but invites us to be led.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent often begins not with an answer but with a question. Who will guide us when the way ahead is uncertain? Whose …

Advent today teaches us how to wait without hardening, by learning to recognise God’s work in real and often modest acts of healing and justice.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Gaudete, rejoice. The Church wears rose today not because the world is suddenly healed, but …

This homily is about a small light that keeps going, even when the night feels long.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent teaches us how to wait without giving up. Each week we light another candle on the Advent wreath. The darkness does not disappear at …

This homily reflects on Advent as a season of learning to listen again, especially when God speaks in ways we did not expect.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent often finds us tired before it finds us ready. We come carrying noise, disappointment, and …

This Advent word reminds us that God comes close to steady us, to lift the lowly, and to ask us whether we will make room for his kingdom in simple, costly ways.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent often begins more quietly than we expect. Not with …

At the heart of today’s Scriptures is a steady promise: God does not tire of us, even when we are worn thin.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent meets us where we actually are, not where we wish we were. It meets us tired, carrying quiet worries, …

Dear friends in Christ,

A shepherd sees one sheep missing. He leaves the rest and goes to find it. That simple image, which Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel, helps us understand everything else we hear in today’s readings. Advent is not only about waiting. It is about a God …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The story of salvation begins with a woman. And today, we remember that it begins again—with another woman.

In the first reading from Genesis, God calls out to Adam, “Where are you?” Adam and Eve are hiding. They are ashamed. Something in …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we begin with a simple image: a small green shoot growing out of an old tree stump. It looks fragile, yet it refuses to die. That is the heart of Advent. When we see endings, God sees beginnings. When we lose hope, God plants it. …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we gather with a quiet hope burning within us: that God is nearer than we think—guiding, healing, and sending us to tend a wounded world.

Let one image carry us through today’s Word: a gentle voice guiding a traveller through thick …

Dear friends in Christ, today we are offered a simple truth that carries the weight of heaven: God teaches us to see again. Everything in these Advent readings leads us toward this gentle but urgent promise: our vision restored, our courage renewed, and our hearts awakened …

Dear friends in Christ, today we stand in Advent’s quiet light, listening for the steady voice that teaches us how to build a life that can stand. If there is a single thread running through the Scriptures for this Thursday of the First Week of Advent, Year A, it is this: …

Dear friends in Christ, this homily carries one simple image: God prepares a table on the mountain, and through saints like Francis Xavier he sends us out to bring the world there.

Francis Xavier, one of the first companions of Ignatius, stands as a sign of what grace can do …

Dear friends in Christ, today’s readings invite us to see how God plants new life in places that seem cut down, and how a humble, childlike heart becomes the soil where this new life grows.

Isaiah tells us that a shoot rises from the stump of Jesse. Not the proud heights of …

Dear friends in Christ, today the Church invites us to see that God comes quietly to the humble, comes faithfully to the weary, and comes surprisingly to the outsider; and that Advent is the season in which our eyes learn again how to recognise him.

Our first reading from …

Dear friends in Christ, this Advent season begins with a simple truth: it teaches us to notice the first light of God’s coming and to walk toward it with honest, steady hearts. Everything we hear today points us toward that light.

Our first reading from Isaiah gives us a …

Good evening everyone,

First, please let me say what a pleasure it is has been to accompany the young men and young women on their retreat today.

We have considered the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and reflected on their own giftedness and call to be ministers in the Church, …

This afternoon In John’s Gospel, disciples are the Father’s gift to Jesus. That is the sense of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (Jn 6:44). The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts is a good example of one whom the Father …

You are all welcome to this glorious place of great joy and hope for the union we are about to witness. We are all gathered in this inimitable venue to share in this joyous occasion together and to celebrate the love that Matthew and Claudia both share for each other and to …

Happy Easter everyone.

Today we celebrate the resurrection, the triumph of life over death. Let us today be witnesses to the Lord and delight in the saving message of Jesus Christ.

Our readings this morning invite us to a deeper form of belief. In some way they all touch on …

Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a righteous spirit in the second reading, and death and resurrection in the Gospel, or in Lazarus’ case, resuscitation, from the dead. In a nutshell, we are witnesses to the promise of …

All our readings are taken from near the end of their books, and so are summaries in a way of their main and most important messages. This is not surprising as we come to the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year next week. I want to briefly examine each of the readings and …

I met Christopher and Simone at their Engaged Encounter weekend PC – that’s pre-COVID. And when they asked me to marry them I was deeply touched. But so much seems to have happened since then and yet, by God’s grace, we are all gathered here this afternoon, in this wonderful …

Today we are asked to contemplate authority and to pray for those in authority. Authority is legitimate power, and in our readings today we see how certain individuals are legitimized, and what power is given to them by the ultimate authority, the one whom Peter calls the …

Today’s first reading contains a word that has taken on new dimensions and has been felt more often in these days than in the past. “Terror is on every side!” We currently are continuing to face the terror of a pandemic. And that’s been enough to make us all anxious and …

Before Jesus Ascends, he needs to explain to the apostles that they will not be left alone. That he will send his spirit to be with them.

In the first reading we see Philip fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus that the Good News would be preached in Samaria. Samaria was home to …

Dear Friends,

This is the day that the LORD has made;

Rejoice and be glad. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Happy Easter everyone.

We have been celebrating Lent since the 26th of February, and this has been a Lent like no other we have known. We have had to sacrifice so much: our …

Today I want to talk about the readings but I also want to say a few words about the past week in South Africa and how the readings have resonated with my experience of them. Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a righteous …

We’ve been making this journey during Lent where we’ve been asked to travel with Jesus into parched deserts and climb-up and down mountain-tops – and today our first reading is again in a desert where the Israelites, having escaped slavery in Egypt, are grumbling, so Moses …

Today our readings are short, and they are basically inviting us to listen to God, and to notice that God has not abandoned us, but is always with us. We are simply called to respond to God’s presence and call in our lives.

I’m not sure if you remember the Gospel from last …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Ella Riley Cumings. As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Ella into a relationship with Jesus Christ. In …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Rebecca Catherine Grace Carswell. As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Rebecca into a relationship with …

Today’s Gospel follows on from last week’s – the one about the wicked tenants. Now Jesus is becoming even blunter in the way he makes his point. If they did not understand last week’s parable, they have to, he thinks, understand this one. A marriage feast is a joyous …

During the week we celebrated World Teachers Day and I’d like to ask for your prayers for all of our teachers in Catholic Schools, and indeed, all our schools in our country. They deserve our thanks and our prayers for their dedication and work in preparing our future. Of …

Today’s readings talk to us of conversion, the importance of what we do rather than what we say, and of the primacy of individual responsibility over communal responsibility.

In our first reading today we hear how “when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has …

Today we celebrate two things. The first is all of you who have been doing this Alpha Course and who I think have been learning more and more about their faith in god the Father who created us, and in Jesus Christ his Son who came to save us, and in the Holy Spirit that has …

Last week we heard the parable of how the servant was forgiven his debts. The Lord was generous with his mercy and expected us to be generous in return. The Church also celebrated the Feast of the Apostle Matthew during the week and we read of how Jesus came and called …

I’d like to thank the children and the catechists in our parish who teach our children every week. They take great care in preparing the children for the sacraments and as a parish we are very grateful to them.

Quite often in Jesus’ parables there is a hidden meaning – but …

Today Jesus continues to reveal aspects of his divinity when he walks on water and commands the winds and the waves. Just like last week he is revealing his divinity in order to strengthen his disciples’ faith, and we see in Peter someone who is like us – someone who has …

I have three small thoughts about today’s readings and they concern Revelation, dialogue and prayer.

Today we celebrate an important Feast – the Feast of the Transfiguration, a Feast that is mentioned in all three of the synoptic Gospels, and which symbolically links the …

Today we celebrate in the parish, the feast of Saint Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, and the inspiration of a spirituality that I know many of you, young and old, lay and religious, value and esteem. There’s so much I could tell you about St Ignatius, but let me try …

This past week I found myself asking God why things happen the way they do? If God is all powerful, could he not prevent tragedy or evil? Inherent in this question, is a deeper underlying question as to how exactly does God act in the world in the first place? God …

On behalf of Edward’s family, and all of us at Holy Trinity, I’d like to thank you all for coming here today. In our first reading we heard that there is a time for everything, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to be silent, and a time to speak, a time to laugh …

Last week we heard about a farming metaphor to do with ploughing – we heard Jesus explain that with Him, the yoke is easy and the burden is light. And I tried to explain how this is so because we do not bear our burdens alone, or end up being yoked by ourselves – …

We just heard that God has hidden things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants. When I hear that line I think of a story when a young dad who had a young son were walking back from Church one day after Mass and the father said to his son, …

As I read today’s readings I was struck by one of the many qualities of God, his loving kindness, and the hospitality and love Jesus is calling us to.

In today’s Gospel though, at least on a first reading of it, you might be forgiven for wondering where is the …

In today’s Gospel we hear what is in fact one of the most repeated commands in the Bible. It is not ‘thou shalt not be corrupt’ – though in this country the Church must never tire of saying that. It is, instead, the much simpler, and yet, much more important, “do …

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This feast asks us to grapple with the very identity of God. To ask, not only who God is, and what God is, but how he communicates to us because we can only be in relationship with someone who discloses …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Michael Wallace van Zyl.

As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Michael into a relationship with Jesus …

My brothers and sisters, on this the last day of Easter, on this our Feast of Pentecost, our readings tell us the story of the descent of the Holy Spirit.

We remember that in the Bible, God the Father and God the Son have featured very prominently – but God the …

I’d like today to talk about three things: firstly, the Holy Spirit, secondly, a sign of that Spirit present in our country this week. And thirdly, I’d like to briefly say something about Catholic schools which you may have noticed from some of the children wearing …

In today’s first reading we hear how, as a result of the evangelization of the apostles, the number of disciples grew. But as the number of disciples grew, we are told, so did the complaints. In ways that we can identify with today, the complaints ran along the …

Last week we heard about the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and how Jesus went after these two ‘lost sheep’ and found them. Today we hear a lot about Shepherds and Sheep, and so consequently we call today Good Shepherd Sunday. With the exception …

This Sunday’s Gospel reading from Saint Luke is the familiar story of the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus. This story of the journey to Emmaus is both a literal and a spiritual journey. On the one hand, it recounts the story of two disciples who, after the …

So in this evening’s Gospel we hear the familiar story of the Risen Christ appearing to the disciples in the Upper Room.

I’ve just come back from a retreat with all the Parish Catechists where we watched the movie, Risen, which starred Ralph Joseph 1 Fiennes as the …

We must never forget that what we have just heard happened for us. That God so loved us all, that he allowed his Son to come into the world, to die so as to take away our sins. This is why we call this day ‘Good’ Friday. Because it is the day that death …

In Matthew’s Gospel which we have just heard and which really needs no explanation, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a world-ending event. We are told of the violent shaking of the earth that was expected to announce the arrival of the end time. The …

Today I want to talk about the readings but I also want to say a few words about the past week in South Africa and how the readings have resonated with me experiencing this. Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a …

I think today in the readings we are being asked not to forget. This past Wednesday we all came together to receive ashes and mark the beginning of Lent. The Church offered two statements as the ashes were imposed. The first was ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel’, …

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day that around the world marks the beginning of Lent. Although Lent is often thought of as a time for repentance and penance – and it is certainly that – it is also a happy time because it is the way we prepare as Christians …

Well we’ve almost reached the end of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Today’s installment, following on from the last few weeks – which began with ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit’ – now talks about how we cannot serve two masters… we cannot serve God and mammon.

Mammon …

In today’s Gospel Jesus uses three images to capture the new justice he is proposing to his followers. It is a creative, healing, and restorative justice that focuses on relationships. The old justice found in the Bible was designed to prevent revenge running away …

You are all welcome to this Church of the Holy Trinity. We are all gathered here in this Church, from I think, places all over the globe, to share in this joyous occasion together and to celebrate the love that Megan and Peter both share for each other.

The …

In today’s first reading, Sirach tells us how we have been given a choice, to keep God’s commandments, if only we will to do so. We are told that we are to choose between fire and water, life and death, good and evil. Our great gift of free will requires the even …

Taken together today’s readings talk to us about three things: true Piety, true Preaching and true Presence.

True piety, the prophet Isaiah declares in today’s First Reading, does not consist in ritual acts of fasting, but in responding to the practical demands of …

In our first reading today the Prophet Zephaniah, writing some 600 years before Christ, writes of the people he calls the anawim, which means a remnant, the leftovers, a tiny band of God’s poor and forgotten. The characteristic feature of these humble and lowly …

Last week I spoke about Christmas and I used Star Wars as an example. But in case I confused you all – today I want to speak about Peace; because today I think we are being asked to remember three things, a blessing of peace, a call to non-violence and unity, and …

Let me say again Merry Christmas, and I hope everyone had a good night, and that Santa’s new built-in sleigh-GPS is working and that he managed to find all of your chimneys!

I would like to say a few words today about our readings – and how they convey the Good …

It is not often that we have such a coherent set of readings. The first reading comes at the end of Chapter 1 of the first book of Samuel. If one were to read the rest of the first chapter, one would learn that Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was made fun of by Elkanah’s second …

Today I want to say something about dreams, and reflect on two people mentioned in today’s readings: Ahaz and Joseph.

Behind the innocent sounding text of our first reading is a saga that sounds like it is out of the popular TV show, Game of Thrones – by which I …

We might be forgiven this evening for being a little confused about today’s Gospel. It begins with John trying to ascertain what type of messiah Jesus was. Last week’s Gospel happened just before John baptized Jesus. So you would have thought that since he was …

“…The voice of one crying in the wilderness”

In today’s readings we hear from three voices who bring messages of hope to us this Advent.

The first voice is from the prophet Isaiah, who lived in a time when Israel had some underwhelming and despicable kings. …

Today is the First Sunday of Advent. It is the first day of the Church’s year and during this time the Church, in her liturgy, offers us images about the coming of the Lord. In the first part of Advent, the images are mostly about the second and glorious coming of …

Technically we call today the “Commemoration of all the faithful departed” but it is popularly known as ‘All Souls’ as a play on words of yesterday’s ‘All Saints’. In yesterday’s feast of All Saints, the Church around the world honored the Church in Heaven (though in South …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Olivia Grace Allard. As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Olivia into a relationship with Jesus Christ. …